I met with six undergraduate scholarship students at ASU today, focused on presenting a masterclass on interviews. Our brainstorming led us to consider the questions we need to think about when preparing to conduct an interview with a given stakeholder, toward exploratory research.

Collectively, the students and I had a discussion along key areas of interviews, as shown in the whiteboard brainstorming session above. We also managed to do a mock interview on tattooing (interviewer and tattoo business owner) in preparation for one of the student’s projects. We all agreed that doing a mock interview could be harder than participating in the real thing. We also noted, that one can learn from each interview, and after doing the first five or six, the skills required to elicit responses to questions would be enhanced.

About the Seminar

October 09, 2018 3:00pm—7:30pm

With technologies like self-driving vehicles and proposals like tourist trips to the moon, science fiction is rapidly becoming science reality. How should science policy govern this rapidly approaching future? Who should be involved, what tools do we need, and how do we prepare the next generation of leaders?

Exploring Democratic Governance: Solar Geoengineering Research*3:00 – 4:30 pmA mini-deliberation on the future of solar geoengineering research. This deliberation draws on our recent project, funded by the Sloan Foundation, to better understand public perspectives on a controversial approach to addressing climate change. How can participatory technology assessment (pTA) help bring public values into difficult and complex science policy decisions?

Network of Nodes

Ever since the first American spacecraft went orbital in 1958, NASA's craft have communicated by radio with mission control on Earth using a group of large antennas known as the Deep Space Network. For a few lonely probes talking to the home planet, that worked fine. In the decades since then, as NASA and other space agencies have accumulated dozens of satellites, probes, and rovers on or around other planets and moons, the Deep Space Network has become increasingly noisy. It now negotiates complex scheduling protocols to communicate with more than 100 spacecraft.

Most rovers (both lunar and Martian) talk to the Deep Space Network in one of two ways: by sending data directly from the rover to Earth or by sending data from the rover to an orbiter, which then relays the data to Earth. Although the latter method is wildly more energy efficient because the orbiters have larger solar arrays and antennas, it can still be error-prone, slow, and expensive to maintain.

The future of space travel demands better communication. The pokey pace at which our current Martian spacecraft exchange data with Earth just isn't enough for future inhabitants who want to talk to their loved ones back home or spend a Saturday binge-watching Netflix. So NASA engineers have begun planning ways to build a better network. The idea is an interplanetary internet in which orbiters and satellites can talk to one another rather than solely relying on a direct link with the Deep Space Network, and scientific data can be transferred back to Earth with vastly improved efficiency and accuracy. In this way, space internet would also enable scientific missions that would be impossible with current communications tech.

Exploratory learning can be defined as an approach to teaching and learning that encourages learners to examine and investigate new material with the purpose of discovering relationships between existing background knowledge and unfamiliar content and concepts.

The direct link to the Interplanetary Initiative’s Exploratory Learning module is here.

Through exploration learning, learners should:

Recognize and be unafraid of unsolved problems,

Be curious about what is known and how we know it,

Be willing to work toward answers in steps over time,

Develop independence and initiative in working toward solutions,

Have patience with ambiguity,

Have patience with dead ends (“failures”) and thus build resilience,

Understand the difference between a problem they have not solved, and a problem no one has solved,

Practice listening and respecting the contributions of teammates and

Experience knowledge creation.

During exploration learning, learners should do one or more of:

Practice asking questions,

Learn how to improve their questions,

Solve problems that require multiple steps and may not have single answers,

Identify and tackle problems whose solution is not known to the team or instructor (knowledge creation),

Obtain and assess the quality of the content they use to reach answers,

Assess the quality of the answers they produce, and

Work in interdisciplinary groups where all voices contribute.

What is a Planetary Skin?

The launch of Planetary Skin by NASA and Cisco Inc., a new platform for measurement, reporting and verification is hoped to enable the unlocking of US$350 billion per year in 2010–2020 for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Planetary Skin is a global-monitoring system of environmental conditions intended to help effective decision making with data collected from various sources which includes space, airborne, maritime, terrestrial and people-based sensor networks. It is then analyzed, verified and reported over an open standards based Web 2.0 and 3.0 collaborative spaces.

Useful Links

Cisco and NASA R&D public that cuts across institutional, disciplinary, and national boundaries and create a space for flexible pooling of assets and ideas between stakeholder networks.

Planetary Skin Institute is a bridge between organizations like the World Economic Forum, NASA, and the University of Minnesota. It takes in massive amounts of data from space-to-mud-to-ocean sensors. And it uses experts and big data analytics to help emerging market governments know things like where to build infrastructure and where droughts will hit.

Its latest project: Developing virtual weather stations using “exhaust” cell phone data. And helping the government of Brazil create a national monitoring and early warning system for natural disasters–a system few countries have, but all need.

:

One notable example of these risk management and prevention tools: new virtual weather stations currently being tested by Planetary Skin Institute and their partners.

In a breakthrough in environmental sensing and a new way to use junk data, the team uses “exhaust data” from cell phone towers to predict weather conditions by monitoring the speed of radio waves as they travel through humid air. This allows sensing of local environmental conditions anywhere there are cell towers–places that rarely have weather monitoring right now because traditional weather stations are too costly or the locations are too remote. It sounds simple, but it is critically important. Tracking the weather allows data scientists to connect that with all sorts of other information and, most immediately, to predict things like landslides. And to do so for people who live in the areas nearest the towers–typically shantytowns where populations are at greatest risk.

The project in Brazil has been running successfully for two years. If it continues to work, it is a risk management approach and toolkit that Planetary Skin Institute is planning to bring to the rest of the world–the next step in their evolution.

Complexity and uncertainty are hallmarks of the early 21st century, as recent developments in the global financial markets demonstrate all too vividly. Responses to the financial crisis have prominently featured demands for global coordination. Our economic woes, however, are dwarfed by the increasing threats of climate change and environmental degradation— and their attendant miseries, such as pandemics and poverty. Unprecedented global coordination and collaboration are the only ways to address these environmental dangers.

Actionable consensus on addressing climate change is now evident in public policy announcements from global leaders, and in the coalescing of private and public opinion that the world needs to address quickly and decisively the varied perils created by man-made climate change. At the World Economic Forum in 2009, public and private sector leaders outlined three basic requirements for mitigating and adapting to changing climate: (1) targets for countries that effectively put a price on carbon; (2) large-scale predictable and sustainable financing for mitigation and adaptation strategies, and, critically (3) the creation of a globally trusted mechanism for measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV).

While measurement is third on the list, it is the essential precondition to any creation of value, or to unlock financial flows. The simple axiom that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” holds true—especially for the most complex challenges.

NASA and Cisco Systems Inc. are developing "Planetary Skin" -- a marriage of satellites, land sensors and the Internet -- to capture, analyze and interpret global environmental data. Under terms of an agreement announced during a Capitol Hill climate summit today, NASA and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) will develop the online collaborative platform to process data from satellite, airborne and sea- and land-based sensors around the globe.

The goal is to translate the data into information that governments and businesses can use to mitigate and adapt to climate change and manage energy and natural resources more effectively, NASA and Cisco officials explained in interviews.

"There are a lot of data out there, but we have to turn that into information," explained S. Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center. "What we are trying to do is use Cisco's expertise in data handling, put our data in there and explain what's really going on in the rainforests."

Indeed, the partners' first project, "Rainforest Skin," will focus on integrating a comprehensive sensor network in rainforests around the world. The project will examine how to capture, analyze and present information about the changes in the level of carbon dioxide -- the main heat-trapping gas -- in the Amazon and other areas. Information will be posted on the project's Web site.

Other projects during the next 18 months will look at changes in land use and water, Worden noted.

"This will begin to give us a sense of, if we pass cap and trade, is it working," he added.

Now about the project's name: "There are many layers of skin, of information, and this will help us understand all of the interconnected data," explained Worden, whose agency provides continuous global observations using satellites and other spacecraft.

Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio, who directs Cisco's climate change practice, said the information should help companies manage environmental and financial risks in a carbon-constrained world.

"It's providing the support platforms for people to make decisions because today we fly blind," added Castilla-Rubio, whose San Jose, Calif.-based company specializes in Internet Protocol networking.

The Center for Global Development has developed a Web site of its own, called Carma (Carbon Monitoring for Action), which tracks emissions from 50,000 power plants around the world. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization is also developing a way to monitor emissions savings from forest conservation.

"These investments in information now are absolutely critical," said Nancy Birdsall, the center's president, who participated in today's summit with Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers. "We have to create that information and track it over time if we're going to have any kind of system at a global level that people in this country and other countries can trust."

"We'll have to have ... something akin to independent monitoring," she added.

A one-day expert workshop on IOT, focusing on the role of "soft law" in IOT governance. Attendance limit to 30 people. I will be presenting a 10 min talk on "Why Privacy Experts are Concerned about IOT?" and participating in the roundtable.

Gary is Distinguished Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability; Regents' Professor and Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law; Executive Director and Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Law, Science and Innovation.

International Panel:

Brad Allenby, President’s Professor, and Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering; Director, Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management / Arizona State University

“You claim that you were at the physicians getting your heart examined… which was true [Colombo unravels a roll of ECG readings)… the electrocardiogram, Sir. Just before 3 o’clock your physician left you alone for a resting trace. At that moment you were lying down in a restful position and your heart showed a calm, slow, easy beat [pointing to the ECG read-out]. Look at this part, right here [Colombo points to the reading], lots of sudden stress, lots of excitement, right here at 3 o’clock, your heart beating like a hammer just before the dogs attacked… Oh you killed him with a phone call, Sir… I’ll bet my life on it. Very simple case. Not that I’m particularly bright, Sir… I must say, I found you disappointing, I mean your incompetence, you left enough clues to sink a ship. Motive. Opportunity. And for a man of your intelligence Sir, you got caught on a lot of stupid lies. A lot.”

5.2.4. Stakeholder Engagement at the Intersection of Big Data and Criminal JusticeKimberly Gardner, School of Public Service, Boise State University

The conference will consist of plenary and session presentations and discussions on regulatory, governance, legal, policy, social and ethical aspects of emerging technologies, including (but not limited to) nanotechnology, synthetic biology, gene editing, biotechnology, genomics, personalized medicine, human enhancement technologies, telecommunications, information technologies, surveillance technologies, geoengineering, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The conference is premised on the belief that there is much to be learned and shared from and across the governance experience and proposals for these various emerging technologies.

A sign at a shopping mall that describes the location tracking of smartphones is taking place. Most consumers would not have a clue what this is about. The surveillance is described for the purposes of "enhancing" your shopping experience.

ABSTRACT

Location is fundamental to every interaction that happens on earth. Increasingly, the personal and work-related smart devices we use are packed with sensors that record the who (ID), where (location), when (time), and how (mode of transport/condition) of a user’s digital chronicle. Both commercially led initiatives (e.g. objective and subjective mapping of every inch of the globe) and law enforcement motivations (e.g. digital evidence management systems for criminal convictions) have been responsible for generating big data for user convenience and security purposes. This presentation will demonstrate the metadata generated from simple data logging devices, and use scenarios to point to current and future societal implications. While the benefits of these real-time monitoring and tracking capabilities promise to reduce crime rates and make life easier for all, uberveillance will also lead to misinformation, misinterpretation of data, and information manipulation if the commensurate safeguards are not put in place. Policy challenges in the Australian landscape will be discussed with an emphasis on regulation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Katina Michael is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Wollongong. Until recently, she was the Associate Dean – International for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences. She has a BIT (UTS), MTransCrimPrev (UOW), and a PhD (UOW). She previously worked for Nortel Networks as a senior network and business planner until December 2002. Katina is a senior member of the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology where she has edited IEEE Technology and Society Magazine for the last 5+ years, and senior edited IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine for the last 2 years. Katina is an active member of the Australian Privacy Foundation.

The multiple gazes of veillance. Multiple camera recordings corroborating an event. Katina is being surveilled by her student Deniz Gokyer, and another camera further away is surveilling both Deniz and Katina while they chat at UOW. Evidence... evidence... and more evidence...

In 2009 my research team and I used Google Latitude to share our real-time location coordinates. In May 2010, this user "byron ji" is a stranger who has requested I share my location. I obviously did not.

Evidence from my gmail account that Google would send me an email about once a month to ensure that I knew I was sharing my location with certain people. Later, due to consumer pressure, this warning email came more often- about once a week. It meant that even if a spouse had covertly downloaded Latitude onto the handset, that the user would receive an alert within a week to say "your location is being shared".

While Google Latitude is now dead, the feature of Latitude has been incorporated into Google Maps and will be available to all those who download the new updates. For a long while, privacy advocates fought to find out WHAT information Google retained of consumer digital location chronicles. The answer is 'too much'. Around 2010, Google proclaimed they only kept the "last recorded" location of any user. The wording of that response to international NGOs led them to believe that Google was tracking a lot more. It is a well-known fact that if you have wi-fi settings ON on your handset, then Google knows quite accurately where you are at any given point in time.

Getting ready to surveil

Google Car in Greece

HorseTrekker

Since 2008, Ushahidi has developed free and open-source software for information collection, visualisation, and interactive mapping. While Ushahidi were providing a platform for crowdsourcing location and other information, private corporations such as Google have harvested data for profit. The two aims are very different. Above we can see a fleet of Google StreetView cars, fitted with 360 degree cameras. Additionally, there are other recording mediums- Google Trekker on humans or on horseback (as shown above), Google Snowmobiles, and even Google Gondolas. Google has called the international community to get on board with their surveillance of every inch of public space on the Earth's surface. We certainly have the benefit of all of this data in our everyday navigation systems as consumers, but what are the implications of this kind of pervasive view of the world at street level? We have Satellite views, and we are now trying to amass even more than StreetView, to Person View systems.

The SuperTrackstick location data logger. We received ethics approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee at UOW to study the consequences of tracking individuals. Our studies showed the pervasive nature of continuous GPS monitoring. While a data logger such as this is somewhat alarming to be 'attached' to the body, our smartphones have on average about 14 different sensors embedded measuring more than just location. If our settings are on for "location enablement" then most likely we are emitting data to third parties even if we don't realise it. What are some of the implications of behavioural biometrics or human activity monitoring is a very good question.